Jul 18 2007
The Celcon Thin-Joint system played a vital part in enabling Tony Smith of Hortus Infinitus win a Gold Medal for his stand at this year’s Hampton Court Flower Show. Four blocklayers together laid 740 Celcon blocks together with 300 coursing units during a single day. Using the Thin-Joint system’s quick-setting mortar the walls were strong enough to bear drilling of the large holes required by the design the same afternoon.
The concept for his stand ‘In Digestion’ comprised a digestive tract, cut into five sections, each represented by a wall of Celcon blocks with a large hole through the middle representing the digestive tract. These were lined with carnivorous plants and surrounded on two levels by a carpet of four million lettuce seedlings.
A key part of Tony’s plan was to grow the seedlings on the stand, which required two weeks for growing, so leaving only one week to build the five walls required for cross sections of the ‘digestive tract’, bore holes, render and paint them. Commented Tony: “Having to allow two weeks for the seedlings to grow really put the pressure on construction of the stand. We were very pleased with the way the Celcon products performed, we couldn’t have built the stand in time without them.”
The Hortus Infinitus stand won a Gold Medal for the Best Conceptual Garden. Tony Smith won a Silver-Gilt Medal for his stand at the show in 2005 and already has plans for another entry in 2008 – again using Celcon blocks.